Historical dramas are applauded but not popular, capital is in power and it is difficult to welcome the "golden age"

In the past ten years, the good parts of this industry have not been upheld, the bad parts have not been changed, and the soil that cultivated the "Ming Dynasty" has been completely destroyed. Where will a new round of "golden age" come?

Original title: In the past ten years, the "Golden Age" of historical drama has inevitably become

a drama broadcast in history ten years ago. Now it is put on video websites to pay for viewing, and even has to be re-entered into prime time on satellite TV. Costumes and historical dramas have never received such treatment before, and "Ming Dynasty 1566" was a pioneer in the industry. Some people are happy about this and believe that this replay, like CCTV's successive broadcasts of two major dramas "Yu Chenglong" and "The Rise of the Great Qin Empire" at the beginning of the new year, marks that "historical dramas" are recovering and are about to enter a new round of "golden age".

Is this really the case?

In the past ten years, the "Ming Dynasty" has firmly settled at the height of 9.5 points for the Douban version, and its status as the first domestic drama has never been shaken. There are many factors that have contributed to this brilliance, such as fictional but caring for the present, heavy and serious plots, and the wonderful and meticulous performances of old actors such as Chen Baoguo, Ni Dahong, and Huang Zhizhong. An interview mentioned that it took nine years for screenwriter Liu Heping to write the script from "Yongzheng Dynasty" to "Ming Dynasty 1566"; all the actors entered the group several months in advance to hone the script, and they had memorized the lines before entering the set."The whole group looks down on the actors who memorize the lyrics on the spot." Even the props in the play are very particular. Because they are too exquisite, they often disappear after filming."I don't know who they will take them home for collection."

However, when this drama was broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV that year, the ratings were less than 0.5%. It was a fiasco, and "Ming Dynasty 1587", which was originally scheduled to be continued, was no longer followed. Ouyang Changlin, then director of Hunan TV Station, once analyzed the reasons for the failed ratings of "Daming" and said,"Because Hunan Satellite TV's audience is still mostly teenagers and lacks certain historical knowledge, not many high-end people watch Hunan Satellite TV."

In fact, not only Hunan Satellite TV, but also the whole China TV market has such problems. At least in the past ten years, the status quo of historical drama has never changed. Among them, the more "unusual" thing is that in 2013, many historical dramas were launched, but they were cut off by urban dramas and legendary costume dramas. The opening drama "The Legend of Chu and Han" encountered complaints from the audience, and the ratings of "Zhao's Orphan Case" fell short of the same period drama "Million Brides". The historical drama effect of famous directors, editors and celebrity stories began to completely fail."The Sage of the Book","The Legend of the Northern Wei Dynasty","The Legend of Kublai Khan","The Legend of Da Yuer","The Twilight of the Empire", etc., were immediately sent to the warehouse after being turned off, some of which have not yet been published.

Instead, there are more and more ancient costume idols, fantasy, and Xianxia dramas. Actors have changed from powerful actors to popular idols. The tragic palace battles and silly white and sweet IP dramas are the objects of competition for broadcast platforms. There are not enough actors to replace them, and the doubles are not enough to play portraits... Recently, the new version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" has been hit, and some people have asked why Zhang Jizhong's 2003 version of "Shooting the Condor" was criticized before, but is very tolerant of the current version of "Shooting the Condor"? The answer with the highest votes pointed out that in 2002 and 2003, the audience watched "Li Wei Official","The Granary of the World","Towards the Republic", and "Golden Powder Family"; in 2016, the highest ratings were "Dear Translator","Sparrow", and "Decoding".

Under the operating logic of commercial TV stations, without ratings, there will be no investors who will favor them; without investors, there will be no advertising, even for "The Rise of the Great Qin Empire" and "The Ming Dynasty", which have high hopes. On February 10,"Great Qin Empire" ranked fifth among the major hit TV series rankings, far lower than the two leading dramas,"Lonely Fragrance Don't Appreciate Yourself" and "Sansheng III", which are currently dominated by IP. After "Ming Dynasty 1566" was launched on Youku, the 6.8 million views were only unsatisfactory.

In addition, judging from the TV drama filing announcements released by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, in January 2017, a total of 103 dramas were filmed and produced nationwide, with a total of 21 ancient themes, accounting for 20.39% of the total. Among the ancient themes, legends, myths, and martial arts are the majority, and there are no more than 5 real historical dramas.

Editor: Nancy